Sarah Palin

[DeeZire]

Report is out.

Alaska panel finds Palin abused power in firing

By MATT APUZZO, Associated Press Writer 33 minutes ago

Obviously, this reporter is a maverick, and all the D's on the Alaska commission were in cahoots with the New York Times. I am unimpressed with this hack job. Even though it was a government commission, I refuse to believe any of the facts alluded to in the report. SP was railroaded.

(Can you tell I'm a faux conservative today?)

 

[Guest]

Obviously, this reporter is a maverick, and all the D's on the Alaska commission were in cahoots with the New York Times. I am unimpressed with this hack job. Even though it was a government commission, I refuse to believe any of the facts alluded to in the report. SP was railroaded.

(Can you tell I'm a faux conservative today?)

Oh.

I thought you were channeling Box.

 

[shereads]

Obviously, this reporter is a maverick, and all the D's on the Alaska commission were in cahoots with the New York Times. I am unimpressed with this hack job. Even though it was a government commission, I refuse to believe any of the facts alluded to in the report. SP was railroaded.

(Can you tell I'm a faux conservative today?)

The Liberal Press is using Brother-in-Law Gate to divert attention from Obama's secret plans for Jihad.

 

[Guest]

You know, all kidding aside, this McCain/Palin tactic really concerns me. I guess McCain has to do something to divert attention from the state of the economy.

What a fucking coward.


Rising attacks against Obama stoke fears of violence, accusations of racism

http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_10691384?source=most_viewed

By Mary Anne Ostrom

Barack Obama assailed the Republican ticket on Friday for "stoking anger and division'' after a remarkably hot-tempered week that saw searing attacks from John McCain and Sarah Palin at rallies while their supporters shouted "terrorist" and "traitor" and even "off with his head'' at the mention of the Democratic candidate's name.

"It's easy to rile up a crowd by stoking anger and division," Obama said Friday during a stop in Ohio. "The American people are not looking for someone who will divide this country, they are looking for someone who will lead it."

He spoke after McCain released a biting new ad, once again linking Obama to a 1960s radical, only this time with harsher language, saying Obama had "lied" about his association with Bill Ayers. A week ago, Palin used the connection to claim Obama "pals around with terrorists."

The anger seen this week at some GOP rallies has been so palpable that respected CNN correspondent, David Gergen, a former adviser to Republican and Democratic presidents, warned on the air that such "free-floating sort of whipping-around anger "... could really lead to some violence. I think we're not far from that.''

Late Friday, after broad criticism for not stepping in earlier, McCain tried to tamp down tempers but was booed by his own supporters when, in an abrupt switch from raising questions about Obama's character, he described Obama as a "decent person and a person that you do not have to be scared of as president of the United States."

The switch underscores the Republicans' treacherous high-wire after an inflammatory week when the McCain campaign began focusing on Obama's character and judgment.

In recent days, the campaign launched a series of searing stump speeches and ads that some experts call racially tinged. It also spills over to terrorist fears, they say. While the McCain campaign says it doesn't condone emphasizing Obama's middle name Hussein, speakers at McCain rallies have used it this week. Others point to McCain ads, which earlier called Obama "dangerously unprepared," now simply call him "dangerous'' and the constant linking of Obama to Ayers. This comes after months of false Internet rumors that Obama is a Muslim and not an American citizen.

Both campaigns are using words and images to perpetuate stereotypes with voters, say communications experts. And it may work, they say, especially during a chaotic economic time when voters are more susceptible to fear campaigning.

When McCain calls Obama "too risky for America" and Palin says he's "not a man who sees America as you see it," some think they are playing on racist fears that the nation's first African-American presidential nominee is too different.

When Obama talks about McCain's "erratic behavior" and says he's "out of touch," some think he's playing on fears that McCain is too old to be president.

McCain campaign attacks on Obama have "gone beyond the level of code words,'' said Shanto Iyengar, Stanford University professor of communications and political science who has studied racial attitudes in elections. "I call it a racist appeal to identity. Do you want to vote for someone who doesn't look like you or have a name like yours? In America, racial identity tends to trump other forms of identity. It's the most salient basis for making the distinction between us and them."

It's not about race, it's about getting voters to take another look at Obama "and fill in the blanks,'' said Bill Whalen, a former speech writer for Republicans and now a fellow at the Hoover Institution. McCain is hoping to take the voters' eyes off economic problems, where polls show he's weak, and move the attention to Obama's ties to Chicago associates, notably Ayers, a founder of the Weather Underground, which the FBI labeled a "domestic terrorist group," as well as convicted felon Antoin "Tony" Rezko and the controversial black minister the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

"Dangerous" and "too risky" are not code words for racism, Whalen argued. "The Democrats in 1980 said Ronald Reagan couldn't be trusted, he was dangerous because was too much of a cowboy and would get us in a war with the Soviet Union," Whalen said.

San Jose Republican Tony Ochinero, a McCain backer and former Democrat, said he is glad the McCain campaign is encouraging people to "check Obama out."

"I think people have the right to figure out who this guy is and whether he's lying to us'' about his past associates. McCain has tried to play-up Obama's association with Ayers; however, media reports have concluded the relationship was only a casual one.

But as the race hurdles to its Nov. 4 climax, political observers say these words and images will stoke fears, particularly racial ones.

"In a fear environment, what's effective is to draw on fears of racism,'' said Barbara O'Connor, director of the Institute for the Study of Politics and the Media at California State University-Sacramento. Such tactics might be particularly effective if McCain wants to shore up support among conservatives and older voters in places like Florida, Virginia and Midwest swing states. And Obama, she contended, is using "code words to show McCain as rickety and old,'' unable to lead a turnaround.

The irony, she added, that for an election about change, the economic crisis may cause some voters to seek the candidate they believe is safest "when everything else is turning upside down. The fear of the different is the flip-flop of change. Change has been the mantra but now people have had way too much change.''

 

[DeeZire]

Oh.

I thought you were channeling Box.

Was I that transparent? I was just trying to toe the party line - you know, parrot things I've heard from reputable sources, as long as they're reputable sources that agree with my ideology.

 

[Guest]

Was I that transparent? I was just trying to toe the party line - you know, parrot things I've heard from reputable sources, as long as they're reputable sources that agree with my ideology.

Came very close to spitting out my rum.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

The anger seen this week at some GOP rallies has been so palpable that respected CNN correspondent, David Gergen, a former adviser to Republican and Democratic presidents, warned on the air that such "free-floating sort of whipping-around anger "... could really lead to some violence. I think we're not far from that.''

I saw the town hall meeting where the people were sounding off about Obama being a terrorist and an Arab and a Muslim. They booed McCain when he tried to explain that Obama was a decent man and a good American, and McCain looked quite nonplussed, very embarrassed. These crowds he's talking to are apparently the true believer/know-nothings who've been swayed by this talk of Obama's links to "domestic terrorism" and honestly believe he's in league with Al Qaeda, and they're truly panicked. They think America's about the be handed over to the Anti-Christ, and it's not hard to imagine one of them going home and getting a gun and doing something about it.

This isn't just McCain's doing. This is what comes of twenty years of hate on talk radio and the excrescence they put out on Fox News, and on this the right stands alone with its own shame. There simply is no hate-mongering on the left as egregious and irresponsible as this. There's just no excuse for this crap and there never has been. It is and always has been the politics of fear and hatred.

 

[shereads]

I saw the town hall meeting where the people were sounding off about Obama being a terrorist and an Arab and a Muslim. They booed McCain when he tried to explain that Obama was a decent man and a good American, and McCain looked quite nonplussed, very embarrassed. These crowds he's talking to are apparently the true believer/know-nothings who've been swayed by this talk of Obama's links to "domestic terrorism" and honestly believe he's in league with Al Qaeda, and they're truly panicked. They think America's about the be handed over to the Anti-Christ, and it's not hard to imagine one of them going home and getting a gun and doing something about it.

This isn't just McCain's doing. This is what comes of twenty years of hate on talk radio and the excrescence they put out on Fox News, and on this the right stands alone with its own shame. There simply is no hate-mongering on the left as egregious and irresponsible as this. There's just no excuse for this crap and there never has been. It is and always has been the politics of fear and hatred.

McCain's campaign is walking a wobbly line: disavowing the viciousness (a lot more quietly now that they're trailing in the polls) while using Palin to fan the flames. During one of her Obama-as-terrorist rants, when someone in the crowd shouted, "KILL HIM" it wasn't nearly as shocking as it should have been. Scary, yes, but not shocking. On the contrary, it seemed like an inevitable reaction to scripted sound-bites that border on hate speech.

It may embarrass McCain, but clealy not enough for him to put a stop to it. I suspect there are many things about his campaign that shame McCain the man, but are embraced by McCain the candidate, out of expediency. Like his literal embrace of GWB in 2004, it's embarrassing to watch. And terribly sad. Whatever karma he earned as a war hero, he's flushing away with a candidacy that increasingly relies on hate-mongering.

 

[shereads]

Oops.

Meanwhile, back at the proof-reading desk, somebody at the McCain campaign forgot to line-up an attributable source for the quote before running this banner ad at the Washington Post website:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3236/2931253069_82507d436f_o.jpg

 

[Liar]

Obviously, this reporter is a maverick

Wait, I'm confused. Is maverick a bad thing now?

 

[shereads]

Wait, I'm confused. Is maverick a bad thing now?

Ask Famous Person. He or she will know.

 

[Pure]

a little off the 'sarah' topic

but right on the campaign. what a hoot!

http://www.theonion.com/content/video/gunman_kills_15_potential_voters

 

[rgraham666]

but right on the campaign. what a hoot!

http://www.theonion.com/content/video/gunman_kills_15_potential_voters

Um, okay.

 

[shereads]

Excerpt from Bill Maher's Oct. 3 "New Rules" --

New Rule: You can't be president if you practice a violent Middle Eastern religion and worship a genocidal desert god. Which is why Sarah Palin can't be president.

Now, all the churches that Sarah Palin has attended --and she's been to almost as many churches as she has colleges--have one thing in common: a belief that the Bible is literally true. She's not "Country First," she's "Bible First." And not just the New Testament. That's the happy half of the Good Book: the baby in the manger, Jesus doing magic tricks, long, romantic walks on the water that turn into fishing trips with the guys. And a generally positive message. Jesus, after all, preached love and forgiveness, not shooting wolves from an airplane.

The problem is, "Governor Avon Lady" -- she takes the Old Testament literally, too. And in that one, God is an insecure, rage-filled hybrid of Bobby Knight and Suge Knight. He's been alive forever and he has anger issues. He's like John McCain if McCain could fart hail. ( - sr) He's pro-slavery, pro-polygamy, and homophobic, and he'll kill you for masturbating. More people get stoned in the Old Testament than in my Jacuzzi. Not that I have to tell you guys.

If there was a video of Barack Obama standing in front of his congregation being healed by a black witch doctor, this election would be over. But there is that video of Sarah Palin.

So, ask your witch doctor if exorcism is right for you.

And, I don't say "witch doctor" because he's black. I say it because when you're rebuking witches, you're a witch doctor. Witch doctor, folks! This is our country. We've got to get it back from the forces of organized superstition!

People like Bush and Palin simply cannot think clearly because they're in a big, scary, brainwashing cult, and it warps their thinking so much that they're actually horny for the end of the world. And that is not someone I want with the nuclear codes. So, remember that video, and remember that Sarah Palin said --and I quote --"I think I will see Jesus come back to earth in my lifetime."

To which I say, "Hasn't Jesus suffered enough?"

 

[epiphany65]

I saw the town hall meeting where the people were sounding off about Obama being a terrorist and an Arab and a Muslim. They booed McCain when he tried to explain that Obama was a decent man and a good American, and McCain looked quite nonplussed, very embarrassed. These crowds he's talking to are apparently the true believer/know-nothings who've been swayed by this talk of Obama's links to "domestic terrorism" and honestly believe he's in league with Al Qaeda, and they're truly panicked. They think America's about the be handed over to the Anti-Christ, and it's not hard to imagine one of them going home and getting a gun and doing something about it.

This isn't just McCain's doing. This is what comes of twenty years of hate on talk radio and the excrescence they put out on Fox News, and on this the right stands alone with its own shame. There simply is no hate-mongering on the left as egregious and irresponsible as this. There's just no excuse for this crap and there never has been. It is and always has been the politics of fear and hatred.

It's gotten to the point that the Secret Service has begun taking notice of McCain-Palin supporters and considering investigating or even charging them.

 

[Boxlicker101]

There is a huge difference in liability. If there is a finding of libel in a news article, the publisher and paper are guilty of libel directly. In a column, there are far-ranging precedents protecting the publisher and placing responsibility on the columnist.

This is not satire. This is news. It is actually very easy to win this kind of court case. All you have to do is prove the paper printed something false. A retraction is the VERY LEAST response.

This would be a VERY easy win in court. The damage to real prospects of those involved is indisputable.

Here is the article in it's entirety.

Palins Repeatedly Pressed Case Against Trooper

By SERGE F. KOVALESKI
Published: October 9, 2008

ANCHORAGE — The 2007 state fair was days away when Alaska’s public safety commissioner, Walt Monegan, took another call about one of his troopers, Michael Wooten. This time, the director of Gov. Sarah Palin’s Anchorage office was on the line.

Walt Monegan, center, the former public safety commissioner, and his special assistant, Kim Peterson, both said they received phone calls from Todd Palin, right, about Mr. Wooten’s behavior.

Michael Wooten, right, the Alaska state trooper now divorced from Gov. Sarah Palin’s sister.

As Mr. Monegan recalls it, the aide said the governor had heard that Trooper Wooten was assigned to work the kickoff to the fair in late August. If so, Mr. Monegan should do something about it, because Ms. Palin was also planning to attend and did not want him nearby.

Somewhat bewildered, Mr. Monegan soon determined that Trooper Wooten had indeed volunteered for duty at the fairgrounds — in full costume as “Safety Bear,” the troopers’ child-friendly mascot.

Two years earlier, the trooper and the governor’s sister had been embroiled in a nasty divorce and child-custody battle that had hardened the Palin family against him. To Mr. Monegan and several top aides, the state fair episode was yet another example of a fixation that the governor and her husband, Todd, had with Trooper Wooten and the most granular details of his life.

“I thought to myself, ‘Man, do they have a heavy-duty network and focus on this guy,’ ” Mr. Monegan said. “You’d call that an obsession.”

On July 11, Ms. Palin fired Mr. Monegan, setting off a politically charged scandal that has become vastly more so since Ms. Palin became the Republican vice-presidential nominee.

By now, the outlines of the matter have been widely reported. Mr. Monegan believes he was ousted because he would not bow to pressure to dismiss Trooper Wooten. The Alaska Legislature is investigating the firing and whether the governor abused the powers of her office to pursue a personal vendetta. Its report is due Friday.

Ms. Palin has denied that anyone told Mr. Monegan to dismiss Trooper Wooten, or that the commissioner’s ouster had anything to do with him. But an examination of the case, based on interviews with Mr. Monegan and several top aides, indicates that, to a far greater degree than was previously known, the governor, her husband and her administration pressed the commissioner and his staff to get Trooper Wooten off the force, though without directly ordering it.

In all, the commissioner and his aides were contacted about Trooper Wooten three dozen times over 19 months by the governor, her husband and seven administration officials, interviews and documents show.

“To all of us, it was a campaign to get rid of him as a trooper and, at the very least, to smear the guy and give him a desk job somewhere,” said Kim Peterson, Mr. Monegan’s special assistant, who like several other aides spoke publicly about the matter for the first time.

Ms. Peterson, a 31-year veteran of state government who retired 10 days before Mr. Monegan’s firing, said she received about a dozen calls herself. “It was very clear that someone from the governor’s office wanted him watched,” she said.

Nor did that interest end with Mr. Monegan, the examination shows. His successor, Chuck Kopp, recalled that in an exploratory phone call and then a job interview, Ms. Palin’s aides mentioned the governor’s concerns about Trooper Wooten. None of the 280 other troopers were discussed, Mr. Kopp said.

Personnel Politics

Immediately after Mr. Monegan’s firing, Ms. Palin said her intent was to change the department’s direction. (She declined to be interviewed for this article.) She has since offered a variety of explanations for his ouster, most recently accusing him of insubordination and opposing her fiscal reforms.

As evidence, she has contended, among other things, that Mr. Monegan arranged two unauthorized lobbying trips to Washington. But according to interviews and records obtained by The New York Times, the governor’s office authorized both trips.

As for Trooper Wooten, Ms. Palin has said she and others were simply lodging legitimate complaints to the appropriate authorities about a trooper with a disciplinary record who was a danger to her family and to the public. In one instance, she said he made a death threat against her father in 2005, an accusation that the trooper has denied.

Ms. Palin initially said she welcomed an investigation into Mr. Monegan’s ouster. But she has since declined to cooperate with the bipartisan inquiry, which Senator John McCain’s presidential campaign says has been “hijacked” by Democratic lawmakers. Ms. Palin has pledged to cooperate with a separate inquiry, by the state’s Personnel Board.

Beyond the potential political consequences, the Legislature’s inquiry, depending on its outcome, could lead lawmakers to censure Ms. Palin or pass legislation making it more difficult for a governor to remove a commissioner, legislative leaders said.

Watching the Trooper

The Palin family’s dispute with Trooper Wooten surfaced long before Ms. Palin became governor.

On April 11, 2005, the day Ms. Palin’s sister, Molly McCann, filed for divorce, her father, Chuck Heath, informed the state police that a domestic-violence restraining order had been served on his son-in-law. Mr. Heath later told the state police that, although Trooper Wooten had not physically harmed Ms. McCann, he had intimidated her. Ms. McCann told the authorities that Trooper Wooten said to her that he would shoot Mr. Heath if he hired her a divorce lawyer and would “take down” Ms. Palin if she got involved.

The family also reported that Trooper Wooten, who was assigned to the wildlife investigations unit, shot a cow, or female, moose without a permit, used a Taser on his 10-year-old stepson and drank a beer at a friend’s barbecue before taking a second one for the drive home in his patrol car.

In March 2006, after an internal inquiry, Trooper Wooten received a 10-day suspension, which was eventually halved. The suspension letter mentions nothing about threats. At the time, Trooper Wooten and Ms. McCann had been divorced for about two months. But their relationship remained tumultuous, primarily over child custody disputes, said Ms. McCann’s divorce lawyer, Roberta Erwin.

Ms. McCann “wanted to know what relief was available to her” without spending the money to return to court, the lawyer said, adding, “As a close family, the Palins did their best to help her by reaching out further to the trooper hierarchy, with Todd taking the lead.”

On Jan. 4, 2007, a month into the Palin administration and his tenure as public safety commissioner, Mr. Monegan went to the governor’s Anchorage office to talk with Todd Palin, who had requested the meeting. Mr. Palin was seated at a conference table with three stacks of personnel files. That, Mr. Monegan recalled, was the first time he heard the name Mike Wooten.

“He conveyed to me,” Mr. Monegan said, “that he and Sarah did not think the investigation into Wooten had been done well enough and that they were not happy with the punishment. Todd was clearly frustrated.”

Mr. Palin noted Trooper Wooten’s divorce case but dwelt on the moose kill, even showing photographs of the dead animal, Mr. Monegan recalled. The commissioner said he would have his staff evaluate the evidence.

A few days later, Mr. Monegan informed Mr. Palin that the issues raised at the meeting had been addressed in the suspension. The case was closed.

Mr. Palin sounded vexed and said repeatedly Trooper Wooten was getting away with a crime, Mr. Monegan said. “I hung up wondering how long I could keep my job if I tick off my boss’s husband.”

Several evenings later, Mr. Monegan’s cellphone rang. “Walt, it’s Sarah,” the governor said before echoing much of what her husband had said. Trooper Wooten, he recalls being told, was “not the kind of person we should want as a trooper.” He told the governor, too, that there was no new evidence to pursue.

Soon after that, Mr. Palin and several aides began pressing the public safety agency to investigate another matter: whether Trooper Wooten was fraudulently collecting workers’ compensation for a back injury he said he had suffered while helping carry a body bag.

Mr. Palin’s evidence: He told Ms. Peterson, the commissioner’s assistant, that he had seen the trooper riding a snowmobile while on medical leave and that he had photographs to prove it.

When Mr. Palin called back two weeks later, Ms. Peterson said she had met with the trooper but was not authorized to discuss the conversation because it was an official state personnel matter. The issue was eventually resolved in Trooper Wooten’s favor, after his chiropractor sent a letter saying he had approved of the trooper’s riding a snowmobile, as long as he was careful.

Mr. Palin declined to be interviewed. But in a sworn affidavit this week for the legislative investigation, he wrote that he had hundreds of communications about the trooper “with my family, with friends, with colleagues and with just about everyone I could, including government officials.” He added, “In fact, I talked about Wooten so much over the years that my wife told me to stop talking about it with her.”

As for what he had told his wife, Mr. Palin said he often raised his concerns about “the unfairness of his remaining on the state troopers when he was obviously so unfit for the job.”

Of the dozen calls Ms. Peterson received about Trooper Wooten, she said, at least half were from Dianne Kiesel, a deputy director at the Department of Administration. The last discussion with Ms. Kiesel came after Ms. Peterson informed her that the trooper had been cleared to work full time.

“Since there was now no business reason to separate Wooten, she wanted to know what else we could do with him,” Ms. Peterson said, adding, “I could tell she was under pressure to come up with something.”

Ms. Kiesel enumerated various possibilities, like moving him to the cold-case unit or a desk job doing background checks.

Ms. Peterson, who had worked in human resources management for most of her government career, said she pointed out that those options would violate the public safety union’s contract.

At one meeting, Ms. Peterson recalled, the commissioner of administration, Annette Kreitzer, said “to keep an eye on him and that he gets no special privileges.”

In an interview, Ms. Kreitzer said she was simply calling for routine monitoring of an employee who had a disciplinary history or had not been evaluated in a while. Six other administration aides who initiated contacts with public safety officials about Trooper Wooten did not return calls or declined to comment.

As for Trooper Wooten’s planned appearance as Safety Bear, Mr. Monegan said he decided to pull him back.

Unexpected Firing

In July, Ms. Palin’s acting chief of staff called Mr. Monegan to another meeting in that same room in the governor’s Anchorage office. The aide, Michael A. Nizich, said the governor wanted him to head the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board, part of the public safety department. Put another way, he was no longer commissioner.

Saying the firing had come “out of the blue,” Mr. Monegan asked how he had upset the governor. Ms. Palin, the aide said, wanted to take the agency in a new direction.

“Was it Wooten?” Mr. Monegan recalled asking.

“A new direction,” was the reply.

The Legislature’s investigation began after a local blogger, who had been a political rival of Ms. Palin, linked Mr. Monegan’s firing to, among other reasons, his refusal to dismiss Trooper Wooten. Initially the governor said through a spokeswoman that the dismissal had nothing to do with a “personality conflict.” Since then, her explanations have evolved, from saying that he was lagging on filling trooper vacancies and tackling alcohol-abuse problems in rural Alaska to showing an “intolerable pattern of insubordination” and a “rogue mentality” by resisting her authority and spending reforms, sometimes publicly.

Mr. Monegan’s successor, Mr. Kopp, said that when the trooper came up in his pre-employment conversations with Palin aides, “it was raised within the context of one of the things that I needed to be aware of, but there was no direction to take any job action.”

During his first week on the job, Mr. Kopp received a call from Mr. Nizich. Trooper Wooten, in uniform, had shown up at the governor’s picnic, which is open to the public. “Is there anything you can do?” Mr. Nizich asked, explaining that the Palins were concerned about his presence.

The trooper was told to leave the area.

About a week later, Mr. Kopp resigned amid scrutiny of a 2005 sexual harassment complaint.

Mr. Wooten, who declined to be interviewed for this article, remains on the force as a patrol trooper.

First, how can you call thiS a NEWS story? Mast of it happened over a year ago, and the most recent event happened almost thre months BEFORE the dateline.

Second, it doesn't seem very unbiased, as only one side of the controversy is aired. Since the writer is mostly citing or quoting othersm, there would be nothing libelous about it, even if the others were lying in their teeth. BTW, I'm not saying they were. I'm just saying the item, whether article or column, is pretty biased, and not something to consider.

I have also heard about the decision made in Alaska. They said that Sarah Palin should have stifled her husband. I wonder what they would have said about Bill Clinton's wife early in his presidency.

ETA; You said it's easy to win a libel suit against a newspaper. How often does that actually happen. I'm not saying this was libel; I am just saying the artivcle was not really a news article, and that it was one-sided.

 

[shereads]

First, how can you call thiS a NEWS story? Mast of it happened over a year ago, and the most recent event happened almost thre months BEFORE the dateline.

Second, it doesn't seem very unbiased, as only one side of the controversy is aired. Since the writer is mostly citing or quoting othersm, there would be nothing libelous about it, even if the others were lying in their teeth. BTW, I'm not saying they were. I'm just saying the item, whether article or column, is pretty biased, and not something to consider.

I have also heard about the decision made in Alaska. They said that Sarah Palin should have stifled her husband. I wonder what they would have said about Bill Clinton's wife early in his presidency.

You really are a piece of work. First you complain that a political firing by Palin is not newsworthy even though the investigators' decision was just released a few days ago; then you harken back to the Clinton presidency, apparently failing to remember that you right-wingers spent most of those years frothing at the mouth about Whitewater, a scandal that was twelve years old before the Clintons came to Washington. Does your brain ever follow a logical path?

 

[Boxlicker101]

You really are a piece of work. First you complain that a political firing by Palin is not newsworthy even though the investigators' decision was just released a few days ago; then you harken back to the Clinton presidency, apparently failing to remember that you right-wingers spent most of those years frothing at the mouth about Whitewater, a scandal that was twelve years old before the Clintons came to Washington. Does your brain ever follow a logical path?

It would have been newsworthy, but it wasn't really news. It happened three months before the dateline. The decision you mention was released AFTER the article was printed.

I was just comparing the Alaska complaints about the governor's spouse with the activity of the president's spouse in the early 90's. Whitewater actually came to light fairly late in the Clinton administration.

 

[Boxlicker101]

Excerpt from Bill Maher's Oct. 3 "New Rules" --

Quote:
New Rule: You can't be president if you practice a violent Middle Eastern religion and worship a genocidal desert god. Which is why Sarah Palin can't be president.

Now, all the churches that Sarah Palin has attended --and she's been to almost as many churches as she has colleges--have one thing in common: a belief that the Bible is literally true. She's not "Country First," she's "Bible First." And not just the New Testament. That's the happy half of the Good Book: the baby in the manger, Jesus doing magic tricks, long, romantic walks on the water that turn into fishing trips with the guys. And a generally positive message. Jesus, after all, preached love and forgiveness, not shooting wolves from an airplane.

The problem is, "Governor Avon Lady" -- she takes the Old Testament literally, too. And in that one, God is an insecure, rage-filled hybrid of Bobby Knight and Suge Knight. He's been alive forever and he has anger issues. He's like John McCain if McCain could fart hail. ( - sr) He's pro-slavery, pro-polygamy, and homophobic, and he'll kill you for masturbating. More people get stoned in the Old Testament than in my Jacuzzi. Not that I have to tell you guys.

If there was a video of Barack Obama standing in front of his congregation being healed by a black witch doctor, this election would be over. But there is that video of Sarah Palin.

So, ask your witch doctor if exorcism is right for you.

And, I don't say "witch doctor" because he's black. I say it because when you're rebuking witches, you're a witch doctor. Witch doctor, folks! This is our country. We've got to get it back from the forces of organized superstition!

People like Bush and Palin simply cannot think clearly because they're in a big, scary, brainwashing cult, and it warps their thinking so much that they're actually horny for the end of the world. And that is not someone I want with the nuclear codes. So, remember that video, and remember that Sarah Palin said --and I quote --"I think I will see Jesus come back to earth in my lifetime."

To which I say, "Hasn't Jesus suffered enough?"

More mud-slinging against the Rep. candidates, as I predicted some time ago.

 

[shereads]

More mud-slinging against the Rep. candidates, as I predicted some time ago.

No, Box. It's not mudslinging. It's true and it's relevant. Here's the video of Sarah Palin's mini-exorcism (being rid of "witches"):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kj-on3kfWuE

Nice vice presidential material you've got there, Box. Nothing remotely scary about Sarah Palin with the nuclear codes, nossir.

 

[DeeZire]

More mud-slinging against the Rep. candidates, as I predicted some time ago.

Box - wasn't it you who insisted we judge the candidates by the people they choose to associate with? Following your own logic, Palin's associations with religious wackos would indicate that she herself is a religious wacko.

If it's not mudslinging to look at Obama's past associations, but it is mud slinging to look at Palin's, wouldn't this be considered hypocrisy? Please correct me if I'm using the wrong term. Thank you.

 

[SlickTony]

I don't consider Sarah Palin's consenting to be prayed over by an authentic African witch doctor any stranger than Barak Obama donning native dress from, what? his dad's country.

Now, if she really believes in the bible as literal truth, that's a bit of a problem for me, if one day she might conceivably be in a position to sign off on the science budget.

 

[epiphany65]

I don't consider Sarah Palin's consenting to be prayed over by an authentic African witch doctor any stranger than Barak Obama donning native dress from, what? his dad's country.

Now, if she really believes in the bible as literal truth, that's a bit of a problem for me, if one day she might conceivably be in a position to sign off on the science budget.

He's not a witch doctor, he's Christian who happens to be from somewhere in Africa.

 

[SlickTony]

He's not a witch doctor, he's Christian who happens to be from somewhere in Africa.

We still have an example of two people making concessions to exotic elements of other folks' cultures, Christian or no. Belief in witchcraft, that if you're ill or something bad is happening to you it's the result of a hex being put on you by someone else is much more common in Africa than it is in the western world.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

Yeah. He believes in witchcraft. A lot of African Christians believe in witchcraft. A lot of fundamentalist Christians believe in witchcraft too, and Sarah Palin may very well be one of them.

That kind of puts a context jerk on the whole idea of Fundamentalist Christianity, doesn't it? Not to mention the idea of maybe having a president who believes in witchcraft?

Or do we already have one?